After nearly a decade at this domain,
TravelJournaling.com will soon be moving its content to Dave
Fox's nifty new website, Globejotting.com:
A Home for Global Storytelling. In addition
to the content found here, Globejotting also contains travel
tales and tips, humor columns, and advice to help you write
your own stories. And the site is looking for guest writers
too. If you've got stories to share with the world, be sure
to check out the site's writers'
guidelines.

Once articles are moved from here to
the new site, links from TravelJournaling.com will be in place
to easily redirect you to the new links. Until then, enjoy
these articles... and when you're done, come check out the
new Globejotting.com. You'll find lots of fun stories and
useful advice for people who love to write and travel!

Welcome!

Every
journey has two parallel experiences — the external, in which we
observe the world around us, and the internal, in which we visit new places
within ourselves. When we weave these two journeys together through our
writing, we end up with vivid accounts of our trips — keepsakes
that help us remember our travels for years to come. A travel journal
is the ultimate souvenir.

The word, "souvenir," comes from
the French verb for "to remember." A souvenir is a memory. What do we
usually think of when we think of souvenirs? I think of the T-shirt
vendors who hang out outside the Colosseum in Rome. For five euros (or
the equivalent in US dollars or Japanese yen), they'll sell you a
T-shirt with a sketch by Michaelangelo or a picture of the Colosseum.
Tourists go crazy over these cheap "souvenirs." They think they're a
bargain. Then they take them home, put them in the washing machine,
toss them in the drier, and when they take them out, their souvenir
shirts have shrunk so much, they won't even fit a cat. And we call that
a memory?

Travel journals don't shrink. They
endure. They help our journeys resonate in our minds for years to come.

When people travel, one of the most
important items on their packing list — second only to clean underwear
— is usually a camera. We travel to new places and we want to bring
back memories. I have always loved photography, but on a trip several
years ago, I realized that my camera wasn't enabling me to document the
full experience of my travels. Taking pictures deals exclusively with
what we see. When we journal, on the other hand, we can write down all
of our senses — not only what we see, but also what we hear, smell,
taste, feel, and so on. We can describe the people we meet and the
places we visit. And more importantly, whereas photography allows us
only to look outward, in a travel journal, we can also capture what's
going on in our mind.

This website is designed to help you
get more out of your travel journaling. After you read through the
articles here, there are travel journaling exercises you can try at
home to help you practice, and hone your writing skills before your
next trip.

The articles here are rough drafts
from my new book. Globejotting: How to Write
Extraordinary Travel Journals (And Still Have Time to Enjoy Your Trip)
is published by Inkwater Press. Autographed
copies are available from this website and at great
book stores everywhere. (If your local bookseller doesn't have it in
stock, they can special-order copies through the Partners, and Baker
& Taylor book distributors.)

For more information on my upcoming
travel journaling classes, or to hire me to speak at your group's
event, please see my Classes
page. And for all of my latest articles, classes, and more, sign up for
my free
e-mail newsletter.

The links on the left will take you
through the articles and exercises on this site. The "Resources"
section consists of books I recommend for travel journalers.

All types of journaling can teach us
a lot about ourselves. But as you'll read in these pages, travel
journaling is special. Travel changes us and frees our personalities in
ways that don't happen when we're at home.

I hope you enjoy these articles and
exercises. If you have questions or comments, I'd love to hear from
you. Send
me an e-mail!

Peace,
Dave Fox

About
Dave Fox

Dave Fox is an award-winning
travel and humor writer, and a former tour guide for Rick Steves'
Europe. Born in the United States, he has lived in Norway, England,
and Turkey. He currently resides in Singapore, where he works as
a freelance writer and writing coach. He has visited roughly 50
countries on five continents. "I'm fascinated with the psychology
of travel," he says, "...with how we view ourselves when we're in
a foreign place."

A former news anchor for Wisconsin Public Radio, Dave has contributed
to books by Rick Steves and Lonely Planet. His work has also appeared
in travel magazines such as Transitions Abroad, Trips, and Big World,
Singapore Airlines' in-flight magazine, and newspapers including
the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Portland Oregonian, Dallas Morning
News, and Wisconsin State Journal. He has appeared on the History
Channel travel program, Weird
U.S., as an expert on Scandinavian-American culture,
and has been an opening speaker for Princess Märtha Louise of Norway.

Dave offers online
humor and travel writing classes, as well
as one-on-one writing and humor coaching to help aspiring writers
find their unique voice. His travel journaling classes have been
recommended in the Wall Street Journal. He is also available to
deliver informative and humorous keynotes for organizations and
special events. You can reach him by e-mail at dave@davethefox.com.

Free
E-mail NewsletterSubscribe to Dave Fox's free e-mail newsletter for writing
tips, info on his online and in-person writing classes, his latest
travel and humor articles, and more! (And to check out his humor
and travel writing, visit davethefox.com!)Subscribe
Here!

Dave Fox's new book, Globejotting,
teaches how to write more exciting and insightful travel journals...
and how to simply find time to write when there's so much else to
do during an exciting trip. Read Chapter One online for free, and
order your autographed copy here!

Getting
Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental NomadWinner of the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop Book Proposal
Contest"When you travel, things go wrong." That
might not sound like uplifting advice, but in this hilarious collection
of stories about mishaps in faraway places, Dave Fox proves otherwise.
Find Out More

"Dave
Fox's writing is hilarious. It's rare to find a person who has
such unique stories to tell and can write about them to boot."